Repealed a rule aimed at reducing surface and ground water pollution resulting from ‘mountaintop removal’ coal extraction.
Since the 1990’s, an estimated 2,000 miles of streams or waterways have been destroyed through mining techniques such as mountaintop removal mining – a process in which mountaintops are blasted and scrapped to access buried coal veins – with the rubble and waste dumped into neighboring valleys and waterways.
The Stream Protection Rule required that mining activity, or the dumping of mining waste, not occur within proximity of streams and waterways.
Status
Feb. 16th, 2017 REPEALED
Stream Protection Rule | Harvard Regulatory Rollback Tracker
Notables
- The EPA estimated in 2015 that implementing the rule would “eliminate the release of 1.4 billion pounds of toxic metals, nutrients and other pollutants every year.“
Trump’s EPA Made It Easier for Coal Plants to Pollute Waterways | Scientific American (9.24.18)
- Contrary to White House claims, the Stream Protection Rule was actually set to create nearly 300 jobs in protection efforts, and allow $57,000,000 in benefits from reduced carbon emissions annually.
For Polluters, Congress Will Overturn an Environmental Rule for $2.3 Million | Centers for American Progress (2.14.17)
